ICOBASE

Object identity: IC190709-1

Museum Identity: British Museum: 1945,1013.23; BM 129479; Q – 23 (45)

Current location: The British Museum

Type: Cylinder seal

Medium: Green serpentine

Short description: A war-god stands full-face with six weapons rising from his shoulders; His left hand holds some form of pointed weapon and his right hand holds a dagger. He wears a long open cape revealing his naked and muscular legs. He turns his head to the right where stands a (perhaps) war goddess with seven weapons rising from her shoulders. She holds two sticks? With her left hand and has her right arm pointing at the warrior god. A young ram is leaping up before god. To the right of the Warrior is a horned character with a water bowl from which water flows. To her right stands another woman with a fawn on her shoulders whilst her right arm is raised in a form of salute to another horned figure also with weapons rising from her shoulders. Between them stands a Balag drum on which rests a rope with a loop, probably to carry the object.

Excavation site: Unknown

Civilisation: Akkadian

Period: 2800 BC?

Acquired from: Purchased from Charles Alexander Carnegie, 11th Earl of Southesk

Date of acquisition: 1945

Measurements: Height: 3.4 centimetres; Diameter: 2.3 centimetres (max?); Diameter: 2.05 centimetres (min?)

Curatorial notes: The instrument on this impression is identified on the basis of its resemblance with Sumerian cuneiform sign LAK 41 (Iconea 2008, p.130)

Inscription: i-li-esh-dar / dub-sar Meaning: Illi-Eshtar, scribe.

Additional information: With contribution from The Art Fund and Purchased from Charles Alexander Carnegie, 11th Earl of Southesk. Previous owner/ex-collection Bateman. Obtained from the Bateman Collection in 1893 (Lot 110).

Bibliography: Collon, Dominique, Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum: Cylinder Seals II: Akkadian, Post Akkadian, Ur III Periods, II, London, BMP, 1982; Ball, C J, Light from the East, or the witness of the monuments, London, 1899

IC190709:1

Object identity: IC190710-22

Museum identity: BM131690/1954,0510.1/A.391

Current location: British Museum / G56/MES1/3

Type: Bulla/seal

Medium: Clay

Short description: With impression of a banquet scene with musicians. Incribed: i(ban) ma i mi-at bo el-tak-ki. It is a record stating that the contents of the bag to which the label was attached, were 5 sutu of figs, and that the recipient expects a further 160 items.

Excavation site: Chagar Bazar

Civilisation: Early Dynastic III

Period: 2650BC-2350BC

Excavated by: Professor Sir Max Edgar Lucien Mallowan

Acquired from:

Date of acquisition: 1954

Measurements: Height: 4.12 centimetres; Length: 6.03 centimetres

Curatorial notes: This is of very few depictions of a harp with a footstand. They occur at the end of the fourth and early third millenium. I would date this example, with regard organology, to the turn of the millennium.

Additional information: The atypical instruments seem to originate from Syria, at both the sites of Chagar Bazar and Tel Chuera. However, there is another similar instrument on a seal found at UR but which might well have originated from Syria also.

Bibliography: Mallowan, M E L, Excavations at Tall Chagar Bazar, and an archaeological survey of the Habur region. Second campaign, Iraq IV, London, British School of Archaeology in Iraq, 1937

IC190710:22